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A handyman from the Chicago area topped nearly 2,400 entrants to win the 2012 Barron's forecasting challenge.

Michael Danaher, 57, was one of three entrants who got a score of 12 answering the 16 questions that we posed at the end of 2011. He won the annual contest because he was the closest among those three in our 17th question and tiebreaker, the closing level of the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Dec. 31, 2012.

After getting laid off as a data-systems engineer during the 2008-09 recession, Danaher began his handyman service, called Whatever You Need. He also does more extensive home-remodeling work and runs a computer-services business: "I have three businesses, and I'm seeing which one works best. So far, it's the handyman business."

A resident of Country Club Hills, about 15 miles south of Chicago, he's well educated, holding three master's degrees—one in computer sciences, another in management information systems, and an MBA. He has been a Barron's reader for more than a decade.

Danaher is confident about his picks for the 2013 challenge, which we ran in Barron's on Dec. 31, 2012. But he faces a tough battle: We haven't had a repeat winner in the 12 years of the contest. We have received 1,400 entries for the new contest and will announce the winner next January.